This invention relates to the safe storage and shipping of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,013 discloses the explosivity of TFE under a number of modest temperature and pressure conditions. This patent provides an improvement over the prior method of rendering the TFE safe during storage and shipping, by providing the TFE in the form of an azeotrope with CO.sub.2 instead of an azeotrope with HCl. The co-vaporization of the CO.sub.2 along with TFE, by virtue of the azeotrope relationship between these compounds, protects the TFE against ignition. While the CO.sub.2 azeotrope companion to the TFE is better than HCl because of the greater environmental friendliness of CO.sub.2, the CO.sub.2 still has to be separated from the TFE so that the TFE can be used as a monomer for making a fluoropolymer or for other chemical reaction.
The need exists for the ability to safely store or ship TFE without the accompaniment of an additional material that requires separation from the TFE before its use and disposal of the additional material.